Report from late January: The price of something will always go up if the government subsidises it. Childcare is another example of this.
Australian families are still struggling to access and afford childcare despite the Albanese government’s promises. Childcare fees have grown more than inflation and wages since subsidies were introduced.
This cannot be said often enough. People do not trust Prime Minister Albanese. Why?
Labor conjures up a $16.70 increase in tax cuts to grab headlines before the Dunkley by-election where it’s worried about losing a government MP.
Labor knows that bracket creep, a stealth tax, will increase taxes much more than the headline grabbing cut.
Labor’s fuel excise increase will inflate prices at the pump. Inflation will offset the tax cut. Worse still, the excise increase will filter through the food chain to push up grocery prices across Australia.
Lib-Lab energy policies are driving skyrocketing electricity prices that will soon bury the cuts and drive up food and cost-of-living.
PM Albanese is deceptively grabbing news headlines. People cannot trust Prime Minister Albanese.
Labor conjures up a $16.70 increase in tax cuts to grab headlines before the Dunkley by-election, where it’s worried about losing a government MP. Yet Labor knows bracket creep will soon increase taxes much more than the headline-grabbing cut. Understandably, to many people getting $16.70 back from the government that’s a lot of money. Yet the same people will lose it, and much more very quickly, to bracket creep, a stealth tax. The Prime Minister deceptively grabs headlines. People cannot trust Prime Minister Albanese.
Labor conjures a $16.70 increase in tax cuts to grab headlines before the Dunkley by-election, where it’s worried about losing a government MP. Yet Labor’s petrol and diesel excise increase will soon increase fuel prices and inflation, offsetting the tax cuts. The Prime Minister deceptively grabs headlines. People cannot trust Prime Minister Albanese.
Labor conjures a $16.70 increase in tax cuts to grab headlines before the Dunkley by-election, where it’s worried about losing a government MP. The petrol and diesel excise will filter through the food chain to raise grocery prices in every food store in the country, offsetting the tax cuts. The Prime Minister deceptively grabs headlines. People cannot trust Prime Minister Albanese.
Labor conjures a $16.70 increase in tax cuts to grab headlines before the Dunkley by-election, where it’s worried about losing a government MP, yet Labor and Liberal energy policies are driving skyrocketing electricity prices that will soon bury the cuts. The Prime Minister deceptively grabs headlines. People cannot trust Prime Minister Albanese.
Labor conjures a $16.70 increase in tax cuts to grab headlines before the Dunkley by-election, where it’s worried about losing a government MP, yet higher electricity costs are raising grocery prices that will soon bury the cuts. The Prime Minister deceptively grabs headlines. People cannot trust Prime Minister Albanese.
As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I thank Senator Hume for her matter of public importance and support it.
Anthony Albanese has lied to the Australian people — it’s important to point that out.
The conversation around Stage 3 tax cuts is a smoke screen that only fiddles around the edges.
Since 2020, the rate of taxes Australians are paying has gone up by 20%. Anthony Albanese will only give Australians $20 a week back.
Here’s a thought PM – if you’re genuine about Australians paying lower taxes, why don’t you index the thresholds so Australians don’t pay more tax just because of inflation?
The PMs frequent visits to foreign countries is a way of avoiding responsibility. The PM does not understand that leaders lead from the front, not from 30,000 feet. PM Albanese needs to pick up his leadership game instead of his carry-on baggage.
Australia desperately needs leadership. We have the worst outcome for real wages of any OECD country. Housing is unaffordable and our inflation is now home-grown. Two million new migrants is driving demand-inflation, making staples harder to get and more expensive. This situation will become worse after the passage of Minister Plibersek’s new bill to nobble agriculture in the Senate today, which reduces water available to farmers and will without doubt drive up food prices.
The PM needs to stop dodging responsibility and get back here to clean up the mess he’s made.
As a servant to the many different people who make up our one Queensland community I started this week with my usual check to see if the Prime Minister is in the country today. He is. Hitting ‘home’ on his GPS still brings him back to Australia. What a memory that device has. Prime Minister Albanese clearly doesn’t suffer from airsickness, yet he has managed a medical first—spreading airsickness to the rest of the country. We are all thoroughly sick of his air travel. The Prime Minister doesn’t get that and with every flight he is crashing the government’s poll numbers. It’s why the internet has unkindly, though accurately, given the Prime Minister’s plane the new name—’Air Albatross’.
Leaders lead from the front, not from 30,000 feet. Australia needs leadership. Inflation can no longer be blamed on world events beyond our control. All along our inflation has been and is homegrown—demand driven from this government’s record new arrivals. There was a time when Australia could have ramped up manufacturing and agriculture to meet demand from the 2.2 million new long-stay arrivals in just the last 12 months, but not anymore. The Hawke-Keating Labor government and the Howard Liberal government sent manufacturing to China. Now we’re at the mercy of the Chinese and world markets to source goods, including building materials, to meet the needs of new arrivals.
Minister Plibersek is deliberately nobbling agricultural expansion, with another bill in the Senate today to take away farmers’ ability to grow food and fibre for new arrivals. Per capita income has gone backward faster than in any other developed nation in the world, as national wealth is spread across more and more people. A looming federal deficit will force interest rates up and steal even more wealth and opportunity from everyday Australians. Prime Minister, stop dodging responsibility, hang up your Biggles hat, get to work and clean up your mess.
Labor’s failed management of the economy caused by insane Net Zero spending has resulted in the skyrocketing cost-of-living crisis that’s causing financial suffering in everyday Australians. This is callous behaviour from government.
We must confront the fact that the Net Zero fairy-tale is the biggest single cause of the economic downturn. Australians are seeing the result of this government’s pursuit of Net Zero goals in every aspect of life right now. If even the Bank of England accepts that fact and former Liberal Treasurer Peter Costello, along with Australia’s Reserve Bank have all publicly acknowledged Net Zero is inflationary, then the Albanese government needs to sit up and take notice.
End the Net Zero madness now.
As the servant to the many different people who make up our one Queensland community, I agree with this matter of public importance from Senator Hughes. I’m not sure about ‘triple whammy’. Perhaps a more appropriate term is a perfect storm of government incompetence and callousness. Food essentials are dearer because successive Liberal-National and Labor-Greens governments have taken water off farmers to give to kill trees, driving up the price of irrigation water and, with them, the price of food. Profiteering from Coles and Woolworths is not helping. Both have just booked record profits on behalf of their foreign owners, including BlackRock and Vanguard. Real wages are falling—five per cent in the last year alone. Yet the inflation we’re currently experiencing is on the heads of the previous Liberal government, who, along with Labor, Greens and teals, destroyed the economy to control people and transfer wealth during COVID, in the process printing so much money that inflation was the inevitable result, as I said over and over across 2021 and 2022.
Interest rates were always going to rise from an artificial low of 0.1 per cent. The reason they’ve risen so quickly and so high is on both sides of this chamber. The largest single cause of our economic woes is the net zero fairytale. Today even the Bank of England accepts that net zero is inflationary. Former Liberal Treasurer Peter Costello and Australia’s Reserve Bank accept that net zero is inflationary. When baseload power is replaced by fairytale weather-dependent power, energy costs rise. The sun and the wind are free, true. The materials to capture that very low density energy are not. That’s why the cost per unit of energy is so high. Australians are seeing the result of net zero in their mortgages or rent payments, at the shops and in their utility bills. Money doesn’t go far enough to pay for the net zero fairytale, yet this government continues down that path regardless, despite the financial suffering this is causing everyday Australians—callous behaviour indeed.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of saying what I don’t agree with. Today I set out the policies I do agree with. These are policies I have worked hard in the Senate to promote and will continue to do so.
Australia has natural advantages in mineral resources, agricultural land, water, sunshine and a moderate climate that in years past has made Australia the richest country in the world per capita — which is the wealth of the country divided by the number of inhabitants. Yet in recent years life has become so hard, not just under this Albanese Government but under successive Liberal and Labor Governments.
Income per capita is going backwards and opportunities we took for granted in our youth are now out of reach for today’s young Australians. Unemployment is much higher than the published rate, Australians can’t afford housing, electricity or even their groceries. Higher education is slipping from the reach of the middle class and many Australians are now unsafe in their homes and on the streets.
It does not have to be this way.
I spoke here in the Senate Chamber about the steps One Nation would take to solve the many problems Australians are facing after too many years of bad governance. Some of these steps include solving infrastructure issues, increasing productivity and wages, bringing back a people’s bank and ensuring cash continues to be available, and more.
Join us in helping our country to rebound and flourish.
As a servant to the many different people who make up our one Queensland community, I am often asked by people why life under Labor has become so damn tough so quickly and how a One Nation government would help. Australians are decent people and can see through government and media misinformation and disinformation. We all know when life is harder than it should be and when governments are screwing up. Out of control cost of living has resulted from a screw-up resulting from the actions of Liberal, National, Greens and Labor parties during COVID, when our government turned to the use of excessive authority instead of respecting human rights and choice. During COVID, One Nation did advocate for human rights, including quarantining the sick and letting the healthy get about life. Countries that did that are now back to normal. Life in those countries is easier because there’s no massive COVID bill to pay. Australia has a huge inflation problem now due to printing $500 billion—half a trillion dollars—to cover COVID expenses, including JobKeeper and pharma products that are now past their use-by date. Money printing causes inflation. One Nation said so at the time.
One Nation now stands ready to rebuild our economy and deliver wealth and opportunity to all Australians. We will reduce new arrivals to a level where arrivals equal departures. That’s called zero net migration, leaving room for about 130,000 new migrants each year. We will limit student visas to a level at which we can accommodate and teach students properly. We will not import more labour until those who’ve arrived have found a job. We don’t need new arrivals being handed Medicare cards, driving up government spending on health and on schools and infrastructure. We will decline to renew the visa of any new arrival who has failed to find a job or make a contribution during their visa period.
We will license construction of new and efficient coal plants, which will bring electricity bills down 50 per cent. We will cancel any weather dependent generation project that we can legally terminate, and we will ensure that wind and solar sponsors pay into a bond account to pay for the removal of those monstrosities at the end of their short life. Electricity generation should be based on the cheapest source, not the dearest, and the dearest is wind and solar. We will fast-track mining approvals and port upgrades. We will terminate the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and leave everyone’s water where it is to ensure farmers are free to grow food and fibre to feed and clothe the world, and we’ll then get together with the states to review the actual data on river health, environmental outcomes and the social and economic costs of the basin measures taken so far. More work may need to be done, though only after a full basin review. We will build infrastructure projects like the Queensland tropics water and hydro project, the northern Australia’s east-west rail line, the Abbott Point and Pilbara steel parks and the inland rail to the port of Gladstone without crossing the Condamine.
At the moment, Australia’s internet traffic from our east coast to Western Australia and vice versa routes through China. So, if you want to connect with Western Australia, it goes through China. We will build a direct connection instead and upgrade pinch points to lift our internet out of Third World status and make it First World. Human error being what it is, the recent Optus failure may happen again. Once there is network redundancy and proper planning, outages should not happen. The Optus failure is on the government’s infrastructure and communication ministers, who clearly have not done their job to ensure the redundancy we need to keep Australians connected. And we need to keep cash as a payment option, as should every business. These are just some of the many opportunities for infrastructure to harden our economy and provide wealth and opportunity for all.
Infrastructure improves economic efficiency and underscores the productivity improvements that fuel wage rises. Workers don’t need to work harder to get a productivity rise. People are already at breaking point. Government needs to work harder—faster internet, faster ports and rail, better highways, cheaper power and more water. This is how we increase productivity and, with that, the wages of everyday Australians, without inflation. We will purchase the Suncorp Bank and operate that as a model bank to provide a full range of services, including cash through Australia Post outlets. Under One Nation you will have a real local bank branch that handles cash.
We will stop foreign interests owning Australian land and residential property. The bounty of this beautiful land should accrue to those who call Australia home. Large corporations need to be held to account. For 30 years the share of the economy coming from wages has fallen, yet for 30 years the share from corporate profits has grown. There’s a point where a fair return on risk and investment has become a perceived entitlement to ever-increasing profits from rapacious and unprincipled merchant banks investing money on behalf of predatory billionaires, billionaires like Bill Gates, who we discovered just after the election is best mates with the Prime Minister.
In response to running out of other people’s money to spend, the Treasurer, in a recent media appearance, walked back his responsibility to harden and grow the national economy. One Nation does not shirk from responsibility. Join us in restoring our country for people to abound and flourish.
I asked Minister Gallagher questions about the government’s immigration policy which is bringing large numbers of new arrivals into Australia. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released figures that show that spending from new arrivals is running interference on the Reserve Bank’s attempts to cut inflation rates.
The Minister’s defence was to, once again, blame the previous government, then COVID and then she made the claim that many of the new arrivals were just returning Australians.
Senator ROBERTS: My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Senator Gallagher. Australian Bureau of Statistics data and the Reserve Bank for the June quarter reveals that Australian’s spending fell while new-arrival’s spending increased, because the number of new arrivals increased. Minister, the government’s policy of bringing so many new arrivals to shore up domestic demand is acting against the Reserve Bank’s low-inflation strategy. Why do you have your foot on the accelerator while the Reserve Bank has its foot on the brake?
Senator Gallagher: I thank Senator Roberts for the question. I disagree with it, and I don’t accept that we are not working alongside the Reserve Bank. They have their job to do, which is to bring inflation back within the target band without crunching the economy. We have our job to do, which is to implement our economic plan and roll out, as I said before, the cost-of-living relief to get the budget in much better shape, which we have done, and to make much overdue investments into energy, skills and housing across the country, which are causing pressure in other areas of the economy.
In terms of the population growth, or what we’ve been seeing from the net overseas migration numbers in particular—we’ve spoken about this in this place on a number of times—we are seeing some of the results of having our borders closed, essentially, for a couple of years. So we’re seeing people returning to this country, particularly international students to study, at a time when we’re not seeing as many leaving the country. We are seeing that, and that’s reflected in the budget numbers.
But I can absolutely guarantee, Senator Roberts, that we are working with the Reserve Bank. The decisions that we take are about not making their job harder. It’s an already difficult job that they are doing, and our job is to support that in the areas that we have responsibility for, which is to deal with that cost-of-living relief, to get the budget in much better shape, which we have done, and to invest in the productive side of our economy into things like the energy transition, skills and housing, which are areas that were left neglected after a decade—
The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Minister. Senator Roberts, a first supplementary?
Senator ROBERTS: Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that in the June quarter new private house commencements fell 6.6 per cent and new private apartment commencements fell 19.6 per cent. Minister, in line with the Reserve Bank’s 13 interest rate rises, housing construction is falling when you need to build more homes for all the Albanese government arrivals. What are you going to do—pump up the economy with more arrivals, causing more inflation and more interest rate rises, or accept that you made a mistake and put the brakes on new arrivals?
Senator Gallagher: I would just say that we have not changed the policy settings that were in place around net overseas migration, so your characterisation is incorrect. In response to some of the economic data you cite, yes, we are seeing moderation in a couple of areas, and that is because many Australians are doing it tough right now, and the Reserve Bank is trying to lower demand with some of the decisions that they’ve been taking. So, yes, we are seeing that translate into other areas of economic data, but I would also say to the senator, who voted against the Housing Australia Future Fund, that our housing policies are about dealing with this long-term underinvestment and failure to acknowledge that the Commonwealth government has a role to support the construction and delivery of social and affordable housing. That is the area the Commonwealth neglected in the previous decade. We have a range of policies targeted to housing to address—
The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Minister. Senator Roberts, a second supplementary?
Senator ROBERTS: Talking misinformation about your housing bill won’t save this government. Everyday Australians know they can’t afford their rent or mortgage, and they know your government is swamping the country with even more arrivals. Minister, why are you papering over your economic mismanagement and running an immigration Ponzi scheme?
Senator Gallagher: That question is simply incorrect. I would say that there is a huge amount of work that’s being done by the Home Affairs minister and the immigration minister to fix the broken system that we inherited, and we’ll have more to say on that shortly as the work that they are doing is finalised. But it’s simply not true to allege what you are alleging. We have inherited a migration system that the minister herself has said is broken, so we are dealing with issues to fix that.
But, in relation to some of the numbers that we’ve been seeing, particularly in relation to international students and working holiday-makers who have returned to the country with valid visas after the borders had been closed, just because you say ‘misinformation’ doesn’t mean it is misinformation. These are the facts; let’s deal with the facts. We accept that there is pressure in the housing market, which is why we’re responding to deal with it.
The Albanese government’s decision to cut back on real infrastructure spending to make way for Net Zero spending demonstrates that Labor is out of control.
I spoke in agreement with Senator Babet on a Matter of Urgency that this government’s spending is wrongheaded and is doing far more harm than good. Everyday Australians are working harder yet still going backwards on a treadmill that’s worsened under Labor.
As taxpayers we have already paid to build effective base load, coal-fired power stations and all the associated structures to carry and deliver this reliable source of electricity. You’d think the government could spend the annual budget on any number of desperately needed infrastructures projects that Australians have been waiting for. But no, Albanese’s government is tearing down what works and has already been built, to replace it with short-lived wind and solar set ups that are not fit for purpose.
The Net Zero fairy-tale is a nightmare that is driving up power bills all over the country and is a major contributor to the cost of living pain.
The polls are demonstrating just how much people are over this Prime Minister, who has wrung every last cent out of everyday Australians while cosying up to foreign globalist interests.
One Nation is now the party for the workers and economic recovery. One Nation’s grounded, commonsense approach will benefit all Australians.
As a servant to the many different people who make up our one Queensland community, I agree with Senator Babet that the government’s spending is wrongheaded and is causing more harm than good. The Albanese government’s announcement this week to cut back on real infrastructure spending to make way for nonsensical net zero spending is counterintuitive, a wrecking ball for future generations. Taxpayers have already paid for the national electricity grid through their tax payments and through their electricity bills. Taxpayers have already built beautiful, cost-effective baseload coalfired power stations and the associated poles and wires.
Instead of using the annual share of the budget that goes to infrastructure to build something new and useful, the Albanese government is tearing down what has already been built and building it again—and, much like this Prime Minister, building it with something that is not fit for purpose. Wind and solar are the most unreliable and expensive forms of power, once everything is factored in, including transmission lines. Wind turbines last for 15 years and solar installations about the same. All the nature-dependent power installed under this and previous governments has to be replaced before we get to 2050 and then replaced again and again every 15 years after that—again and again and again: insanity, a permanent black hole that benefits nobody except the predatory, parasitic billionaires who pull this government’s strings.
Speaking of fit for purpose, Snowy Hydro 2.0 has proved that city bankers like Malcolm Turnbull are crap at picking infrastructure projects. To continue throwing good money after bad with this failure will come at the opportunity cost of funding sensible infrastructure projects like Big Buffalo dam and hydro, Hells Gates Dam, Koombooloomba hydro, Urannah Water Precinct, Emu Swamp and South East Flows Restoration. These are all worthwhile infrastructure projects that One Nation will build. And inland rail to the Port of Gladstone, the east-west rail line and a steel park at Abbot Point are projects One Nation will continue to push and support and build.
Then there are the road projects, schools, rural hospitals and so much more that this government is shelving so it can waste money on the UN’s net zero fairytales—nightmares. Weather-dependent generation needs batteries to back it up—more expense. The environmental destruction is finally getting attention, after scars have already been cut across national parks all over this beautiful country. Each gigawatt of coalfired power has to be replaced with five gigawatts of wind or solar. No amount of solar will provide power at night without expensive batteries that are dirty to manufacture and last an even shorter time than the solar panels they so positively affirm.
The net zero alliance puts the cost of 100 renewables with no blackouts by 2050 at $1.5 trillion—260 gigawatts of installed capacity to replace 60 gigawatts of coal. No wonder the infrastructure minister, Minister King, announced that the Albanese government would require state governments to pay for at least half of any infrastructure project in their state. And new infrastructure projects must be over $500 million before the federal government will fund their half. That will leave the states to pay for most infrastructure projects entirely. That’s Victoria done for, with all the debt Labor Premier Andrews left behind.
What next, a state levy to pay for infrastructure that the federal government should rightly be paying for now? This is socialists taxing the life out of the public. Australia already ranks 57th out of 62 of the largest economies for income tax levels, with first being the lowest tax rate, and 56th for company tax. We’re nearly the highest. Foreign corporations, of course, are not included. They’re token. Tax payments are only for public relations. Successive governments have been unable to deal with multinational tax avoidance—because they’re not really trying. Electoral donations keep getting in the way—funny how that works!
According to the OECD, Australians’ average annual wage growth from 2019 to 2022 was the seventh lowest among the 38 OECD nations, at less than three per cent. Inflation is now six per cent, after being at eight per cent. If everyday Australians feel like they’re working harder and going backwards, it’s because they are. As Senator Babet quite rightly pointed out on this motion, if it feels like your mortgage and rent are a struggle to pay, it’s because they are—thanks to Labor. Tax cuts for upper-income earners are coming next year. Here’s a better idea: index the tax thresholds so that Australians don’t pay tax when their wages rise to compensate for inflation and push them into a higher-rate tax bracket. We should be indexing taxes to the inflation rate to prevent bracket creep.
The Prime Minister has wrung every cent out of everyday Australians, and the political polls are saying quite clearly that people are jack of it. One Nation are now the party of workers. One Nation are the party of sensible economic management for the benefit of all Australians. We have one flag. We are one community. We are one economy. We are one nation.
Senator Murray Watt showed the people of Australia his inability to behave in a relevant, responsible or respectful manner when he failed repeatedly to answer questions about the unsustainably high levels of immigration his party and his government are presiding over. That he got away with it without being censured in the Senate Chamber speaks volumes.
Senator Watt laughably continues, along with the rest of his party, to blame the previous government for current issues while halfway through its own term. Either Labor is not fit to run things, or they know they’re in big trouble and desperate to point the finger elsewhere.
The headlines from the major media outlets are telling us that immigration is responsible for the housing crisis. It’s glaringly obvious that this and the failed Net Zero policy is to blame for rising energy prices and the cost-of-living crisis.
Labor is destroying much of what Australia stands for, and it has destroyed its own credibility in the process.
Senator ROBERTS: I move:
That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs (Senator Watt) to a question without notice I asked today relating to immigration.
Senator Watt repeatedly failed to answer my first and second questions. When will the Labor government stop this unsustainable high immigration? It revealed Senator Watt’s complete lack of care for the people of Australia, his dismissal of the people, his arrogance towards the people and his contempt for the real and serious issues facing Australians, such as the housing crisis, with the shortage and high cost of houses and rents; inflation due in part to increased immigration; and hiding the per capita recession. If it weren’t for the record high arrivals in Australia we would be in recession right now. Cabinet is covering up the fact that its policies, including net zero, are raising energy prices exorbitantly and destroying manufacturing, security and tertiary processing—and Labor’s big corporate mates are profiteering.
Halfway through his government’s term he’s still blaming the previous government. That’s all you’ve got, Senator Watt? And then he said falsely that I called immigrants terrorists. I did not do that. I would not do that. I was born in India. Minister Watt is clearly breaching standing orders by not being relevant and by impugning my motives. Senator Hanson was sitting beside me at the time, under the President’s censure, yet Senator Watt gets off scot-free.
The Albanese government is heading down the same dead-end road the Rudd government chose. I’ll give you some quotes from the headlines of the Courier Mail: Albanese ‘doesn’t properly read important briefing documents’; ‘S-show’—a four-letter word—’political chameleon’ who wasn’t prepared; a ‘shemozzle’ and decisions which have rocked the party to its core. How long before members of the government change from hearing negative statements about Prime Minister Albanese to actively working to oust him? The Albanese voice relied on the vibe, hiding the details and contradicting claims, and had an apparent belief that voice proponents could fool the people with emotion. Start treating the Senate and the people with respect. Be honest.
I asked three simple questions of the Minister representing the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs and yet again, Senator Watt turned the Senate Chamber into a circus to his obvious amusement and wasted precious time.
Does the government control the level of immigration into Australia? Yes or No? And how many net overseas migrants will arrive in Australia this year?
The Treasurer earlier this year stated that the government had no control over immigration numbers, yet this is not the case. Was this ‘misinformation’?
The Minister gave no specific answers and once again attempted to direct attention back to the previous government and promoted the Labor’s utterly useless housing bill.
My question is to Minister representing the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Watt. Does the government control the level of immigration into Australia?
Senator WATT: Senator Roberts, I note your interest all week in these matters of migration, and the short answer is that under governments of all persuasions, including those who are having a chuckle over there at the moment, the immigration program in Australia is demand driven. That has been the case under this government and the former government as well.
Senator Roberts: Point of order: it was a very simple, short question. It needs a yes or no answer. That’s it.
The PRESIDENT: The minister is being relevant, Senator Roberts. I presume you’ve finished your answer, Minister Watt?
Senator WATT: As I say—
Senator Canavan: It’s just a yes or no answer, Murray!
Senator WATT: Yes, it’s quite normal for ministers who represent others to look at their notes. Senator Canavan, we can’t all be the genius that you are. You are a genius—I pay that—especially when you get into your dark web and your bunker and you dig out all those statistics. You’re an absolute genius!
Honourable senators interjecting—
The PRESIDENT: Minister Watt, resume your seat. Order across the chamber, but particularly on my left.
Senator Ayres: Yes, old Telegram Matt!
The PRESIDENT: Senator Ayres, you have a lot to say this afternoon. This is question time. Minister Watt, I’m asking you to refer your comments to me and not to particular senators. Please continue.
Senator WATT: I know Senator Rennick was a bit offended by the fact I singled out Senator Canavan as the only genius in the opposition and the only person who could get into the bunker and find statistics, because we know Senator Rennick is pretty good at that as well.
Honourable senators interjecting—
The PRESIDENT: Senator Hughes. I haven’t called you, and I haven’t called you because the chamber was still disorderly. Senator Hughes.
Senator Hughes: President, you’ve made very clear this week, and we have heard from those opposite—
The PRESIDENT: What’s your point of order, Senator Hughes?
Senator Hughes: I would like Minister Watt to withdraw a whole raft of his commentary and reflections on a number of senators over here and his continual snarky personal smears and vilifications.
The PRESIDENT: Senator Hughes, if you want to raise a point of order about unparliamentary or personal language related to a senator, I need their name at least.
Senator Hughes: I said Minister Watt!
The PRESIDENT: Senator Hughes, don’t backchat once you’re sitting down. You indicated that the minister had had a spray against a range of senators. I have no idea who that was. I am not going to make it up or guess it, so unless you have—
Senator Hughes: I literally said it multiple times!
The PRESIDENT: Senator Hughes, you’ve raised the point of order. You haven’t named a particular senator. You’ve indicated to me who in your view made the offence but you haven’t said about which senator.
Senator Hughes: I said it multiple times. Would you like to check the Hansard?
The PRESIDENT: Senator Hughes, resume your seat. Minister Wong.
Senator Wong: I think the difficulty—through you, President—is it was a generalised proposition that the senator was making. If there is a request to withdraw particular language that has just been said—
Senator Hughes: We got multiple lectures this week.
Senator Wong: If that is the request, I’m sure the—
Senator Hughes interjecting—
Senator Wong: Okay. I’m just saying that a generalised proposition is a difficult one to respond to.
Senator Hughes interjecting—
Senator Wong: I’m trying to assist here.
The PRESIDENT: Senator Birmingham.
Senator Wong: I haven’t finished.
The PRESIDENT: I’m sorry, I thought you had finished, Senator Wong.
Senator Wong: Thank you. I was just waiting. The proposition—
Honourable senators interjecting—
The PRESIDENT: Do you wish to continue?
Senator Wong: There is a generalised complaint about Senator Watt saying things about a number of people. I don’t know what those are, but if the request is that Senator Watt withdraw particular language that’s just been used—
Senator Scarr interjecting—
The PRESIDENT: Senator Scarr, no interjections.
Senator Wong: All I’m saying if there is a request to—
Senator Hughes: And he continues!
Senator Wong: Wow. I’m really trying. If there is a request to withdraw particular language now, I would ask the President to call the minister.
The PRESIDENT: Senator Birmingham?
Senator Birmingham: Thank you, President. I did want to pick up on one part of your ruling there, which was to suggest it was necessary for the senator to name a particular senator who had been impugned. I will make it clear that it is possible for groups of senators to be impugned or to have improper motives attributed to them by a senator and that is also against standing orders.
The PRESIDENT: That’s correct.
Senator Birmingham: President, as you’re well aware, it’s not necessary always for a senator to make a point of order and, in the spirit of this week, it would be helpful for strong proactive intervention if senators can’t restrain themselves to actually ask them immediately to withdraw. Preferably they would restrain themselves, Senator Watt.
Senator Watt interjecting—
The PRESIDENT: I haven’t called you, Senator Watt. I am going to respond to those points of order. I am not in the chamber all the time. That’s the point that I made in the statement to the chamber yesterday. It is very difficult for me to ask a senator to withdraw when I don’t know where that language has landed. I take your point, Senator Birmingham, that a slur can be made against a group of senators. That’s not what Senator Hughes was implying. My understanding of what was indicated was that the minister had made, in Senator Hughes’s view, a number of comments to senators throughout the week, not to a group of senators. However, I know that Senator Watt is always willing to own his behaviour and I will, as Senator Watt—
Opposition senators interjecting—
The PRESIDENT: For the benefit of those interjections, a number of you are always willing, on both sides of the chamber, to withdraw. Some of you are not but most of you are. So I am going to invite Senator Watt, if he thinks he has offended senators this week, to make a general withdrawal without making any comment to comments that you may or may not have uttered.
Senator WATT: I make a general withdrawal.
The PRESIDENT: Thank you, please continue.
Senator WATT: Senator Roberts, the government does have a range of controls in place around the numbers of migrants coming into Australia, the categories of those migrants, whether they be international students or tourists, humanitarian, skilled workers so the government does have a range of controls around the numbers and types of migrants who come into Australia. I think I know where you’re going with this, because you have followed these issues all week and I point out that we haven’t really seen a lot of consistency from the opposition on matters of migration either, because what we do know is that, for instance, when the now immigration spokesperson, the member for Wannon, was in government he was saying things like, ‘We need to get our international students back. We need to get our working holiday-maker visa holders back.’
The PRESIDENT: Senator Roberts?
Senator Roberts: On a point of order, that’s not relevant to what I asked.
The PRESIDENT: I’ll bring you back to the question, Minister Watt. You’ve finished. Senator Roberts, your first supplementary?
Senator ROBERTS: On 15 May, Treasurer Jim Chalmers told Australia that the level of net overseas migration is ‘not something the government determines’. Minister, is that a lie, given your government issues the visas and decides who comes to this country? Why are you letting immigration spiral out of control while hundreds of thousands of Australians are homeless?
The PRESIDENT: Senator Roberts, I am going to ask you to rephrase that question.
Senator ROBERTS: Is that misinformation, given your government issues the visas and decides who comes to this country? Why are you letting immigration spiral out of control while hundreds of thousands of Australians are homeless?
Senator WATT: I reject the suggestion that the Treasurer has misrepresented the facts on this issue. It is a really important issue that Australia is dealing with at the moment. But, Senator Roberts, in answer to similar questions from you over the course of the week, I’ve pointed out a number of steps the government have taken to fix the fundamentally broken migration system that we inherited from the opposition and, in particular, from the now Leader of the Opposition, Mr Dutton, who oversaw the migration system as the Minister for Home Affairs for a number of years.
We’ve already scaled back the pandemic event visa. We’re taking action about the working hours for international students, which has been a real drawcard for international students coming to Australia. We’ve made all sorts of improvements to Home Affairs, in terms of its processing of visa applications. And, of course, when it comes to housing, as I’ve pointed out to you already, you and your colleagues have an opportunity to vote for more housing and you chose to vote against it.
The PRESIDENT: Senator Roberts, your second supplementary?
Senator ROBERTS: How many overseas immigrants, net, will arrive in Australia this financial year?
Senator WATT: Again, I know that we’ve addressed this issue in previous answers, both in chis chamber and in estimates, and the issues around the number of net overseas migrants is a matter that is handled by the Treasury. I’ve already acknowledged in previous answers on these questions that post COVID, when we had a couple of years of pretty much zero migration to Australia, it was always inevitable that there was going to be an increase in that migration as we had tourists, working holiday-maker visa holders and skilled migrants coming back into the country. That is exactly one of the reasons why our government is trying to fix the broken migration system that we inherited and trying to build more homes, despite your opposition and that of the coalition.
The PRESIDENT: Senator Roberts?
Senator Roberts: On a point of order, I asked the question: how much net immigration this year?
The PRESIDENT: The minister explained it is a question that should be directed to Treasury, and the minister was answering it in his capacity. The minister has finished.
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